Establishing a Dynasty

"Spell it out for me. What's on your mind?" The Outlander asked, crossing his thick arms across his barrel chest.

"Continuity of rule," Lana said. She didn't pace as she spoke, only occasionally emphasizing a point with a gesture. "Think about the situation at hand. You have Zakuul, the Eternal Empire, with the Eternal Emperor Valkorian. You killed him. Then five years of Arcann's tyranny and conquest across the galaxy, shattering the Republic and the Sith Empire. You defeated him. Then Vaylin. Now Zakuul, which had been under the rule of the same Emperor for centuries, has been through 3 rules in less than a decade. They need stable leadership - if not a planetary monarch, than at least a figurehead of some kind. That means a dynasty they can trust. You liberated them from tyrants. Now you need to give them a future. And it's not just Zakuul. The Dark Council is shattered, most of them are either dead or in hiding. Darth Marr and Empress Acina managed to keep the Empire from disintegrating completely, but they're both gone now. Without a strong leader and clear path of succession, the remnants of the Sith will tear each other to pieces trying to fight over the scraps of what was once a superpower. The Republic isn't any better, after Saresh's disastrous regime and her puppet successor. Systems are trying to rebuild, yet demagogues on planet after planet are trying to get them to break away from the Republic. As Minister of Sith Intelligence, this would have been music to my ears. But the Sith Empire's in no position to capitalize, and none of those sectors can thrive on their own. It means chaos and ruin for entire civilizations. We can do a lot, but we can't handle *that*, not with everything else."

The Outlander took that all in. "You've put a lot of thought into this."

Lana nodded. "I have. It's a more serious problem than you realize. We've taken on the responsibility to holding things together. And right now, that means one thing."

"And what might that one thing be?"

"An heir."